I’ve just come to the end of a tough 2-week block of
training - possibly the toughest two weeks I’ve ever done. In these two weeks, training-wise,
I’ve managed to do everything I wanted to, although not necessarily in the
order that I wanted to do it, but I’ve had to be flexible to adapt and overcome
a few challenges that came up which were out of my control. I’m at the stage
where I could probably do the Ironman next week and be reasonably competitive,
so I’m moving into the “diminishing returns” phase of training now, and as my
fitness continues to improve, I walk an ever-narrower tightrope in terms of the
risks of injury or illness. I know if I can totally control and get through the
next 12 weeks without disruption to my training and eating, and without injury,
I am capable of a good result at Ironman UK, so I’ll continue to keep my
fingers crossed.
I am now moving into event season, so from now until the start of June, my training will be dominated by the two 100-mile bike time trials I’m doing, one on 17th May and one on 1st June. I’ll also follow each of these events with a run, and I’ll eat and drink the same nutrition while competing in them, to mimic race day. These events will involve an enforced “easing” of training, to taper and recover from the time trials. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it’s very difficult to train indefinitely at the intensity I have been training at over the past two weeks.
In the next week or two I will have to take the bike out to my formerly local bike shop in Essex for a full service, and to have some new components put onto it, to make sure it’s as fast as it can be. Although I now live in Kent, I want the bike shop in Essex to service the bike, as they do a great job and I trust them 100%. This will involve renting a car and spending a day driving, but hopefully it’ll be worth it, and I will time it so I do it during an easy weekend, to avoid disrupting my training.
I’ve also got aerodynamic clothing in my room worth about £1500 (equipment isn’t cheap), but I haven’t had time to try any of it on. There are a few different aero jerseys and aero shorts in different sizes. I recently ordered it online, and I will be trying it all on during my easy week when I have some spare time. I’ll keep one top and one pair of shorts at most, and return the rest of it. So my total spend will be nowhere near £1500.
Next week will be an easy week regardless, to allow my body to rest and recover from the tough 2-week spell that has passed, and to mentally give myself a break too. It’s during these recovery periods that the body gets stronger, so the easier weeks are an essential part of training. During next week’s easier week, I’ll still train, but I won’t do anything long or intense. When I first started training for an Ironman in 2010, while in South Korea, I used to do no training at all during my easy weeks, but then for the first few days back doing full training, I would feel awful and sluggish, so I’ve found it’s important to keep ticking over during the easier weeks.
Training done this week was as follows:
Monday 21st April 2014: 1:30 turbo (1:20 hard), 30 minute run
Tuesday 22nd April 2014: Rest
Wed 23rd April 2014: 40 minute fartlek run
Thurs 24th April 2014: 1:30 turbo (20 x 2minutes hard, 2 minutes easy), 30 minute run
Friday 25th April 2014: 3km swim (20 x 100m in 1:29, 10 second recovery), 1:20 turbo (single leg drills: 12 x 2 minutes left, 2 minutes right, 2 minutes both)
Saturday 26th April 2014: 4 hour turbo, 30 minute run
Sunday 27th April 2014: 4.1km swim (16 x 250m paddle/band drills), 100 minute run
At the weekends, I usually sleep anything up to 12 hours, purely to rest and recover. My housemates have termed it “binge sleeping”. It’s probably not ideal – ideally I’d sleep 9 hours per night, every night – but given my circumstances, it’s the best I can do. One unfortunate downside to where I live is that my room faces onto quite a busy road. It’s not a main road, or a fast road, but it’s busy enough compared to what I’m used to.
So, good earplugs are essential. I spent about £40 in Boots buying every single type of earplug they had, and I spent about £40 online buying various types of industrial earplugs, and I’ve worked my way through them all. I’ve found that the best earplugs for dulling traffic noise are the yellow 3M ones, but they are only effective for single use. Having a new pair of earplugs every night would cost a fortune, so I use new ones at the weekend when I want to sleep in, and I re-use them during the week when I’m getting up horribly early anyway.
I was told that in the three months leading up to my Ironman, I could potentially see big improvements in my back, hopefully approaching the ideal back shown above. However, it was stressed to me that I need to buy into the idea of weekly treatment at the absolute least. So, I’ve agreed to try and attend weekly sessions in an effort to improve my back. I was also told my hip movements are quite restricted, and this is something else that the osteopath will work on in the coming weeks.
I am now moving into event season, so from now until the start of June, my training will be dominated by the two 100-mile bike time trials I’m doing, one on 17th May and one on 1st June. I’ll also follow each of these events with a run, and I’ll eat and drink the same nutrition while competing in them, to mimic race day. These events will involve an enforced “easing” of training, to taper and recover from the time trials. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it’s very difficult to train indefinitely at the intensity I have been training at over the past two weeks.
In the next week or two I will have to take the bike out to my formerly local bike shop in Essex for a full service, and to have some new components put onto it, to make sure it’s as fast as it can be. Although I now live in Kent, I want the bike shop in Essex to service the bike, as they do a great job and I trust them 100%. This will involve renting a car and spending a day driving, but hopefully it’ll be worth it, and I will time it so I do it during an easy weekend, to avoid disrupting my training.
I’ve also got aerodynamic clothing in my room worth about £1500 (equipment isn’t cheap), but I haven’t had time to try any of it on. There are a few different aero jerseys and aero shorts in different sizes. I recently ordered it online, and I will be trying it all on during my easy week when I have some spare time. I’ll keep one top and one pair of shorts at most, and return the rest of it. So my total spend will be nowhere near £1500.
Next week will be an easy week regardless, to allow my body to rest and recover from the tough 2-week spell that has passed, and to mentally give myself a break too. It’s during these recovery periods that the body gets stronger, so the easier weeks are an essential part of training. During next week’s easier week, I’ll still train, but I won’t do anything long or intense. When I first started training for an Ironman in 2010, while in South Korea, I used to do no training at all during my easy weeks, but then for the first few days back doing full training, I would feel awful and sluggish, so I’ve found it’s important to keep ticking over during the easier weeks.
Training done this week was as follows:
Monday 21st April 2014: 1:30 turbo (1:20 hard), 30 minute run
Tuesday 22nd April 2014: Rest
Wed 23rd April 2014: 40 minute fartlek run
Thurs 24th April 2014: 1:30 turbo (20 x 2minutes hard, 2 minutes easy), 30 minute run
Friday 25th April 2014: 3km swim (20 x 100m in 1:29, 10 second recovery), 1:20 turbo (single leg drills: 12 x 2 minutes left, 2 minutes right, 2 minutes both)
Saturday 26th April 2014: 4 hour turbo, 30 minute run
Sunday 27th April 2014: 4.1km swim (16 x 250m paddle/band drills), 100 minute run
Totals: Swim 7.1km, Bike 180 miles, Run 32 miles.
My training log from the past two weeks looks like this:
My training log from the past two weeks looks like this:
I take satisfaction from marking off the days and weeks on
my training log, and being able to answer “yes” at the end of each week to the
question: “Given my circumstances, did I do everything possible to train as
well as I could?"
One thing that disrupted me a little this week was on Thursday night, when I got a flat tyre while on the turbo. I have no idea how it's possible to get a flat tyre on a turbo trainer, but it happened. Needless to say, it was the rear tyre, which always takes longer to fix than the front tyre. It took me about 20 minutes to put it right. So I'll need to have a think about how I will deal with it if I get a flat on race day, as I can't afford to lose twenty minutes. At my level, I can't afford to lose two minutes...
One thing that disrupted me a little this week was on Thursday night, when I got a flat tyre while on the turbo. I have no idea how it's possible to get a flat tyre on a turbo trainer, but it happened. Needless to say, it was the rear tyre, which always takes longer to fix than the front tyre. It took me about 20 minutes to put it right. So I'll need to have a think about how I will deal with it if I get a flat on race day, as I can't afford to lose twenty minutes. At my level, I can't afford to lose two minutes...
One of the things I have to make sure I do is to sleep well
and to sleep enough. I aim to get 8 hours per night, but sometimes during the
week this slips a little. I find it difficult to get home from work, finish
training, shower, eat dinner and then go straight to bed. On longer training
nights during the week, my day (including training and dinner) might not finish
until close to 10pm, and I should ideally be sleeping at this time. I’ve found
I need a little bit of downtime after the incessant, constant go-go-go of the
day, so a couple of nights during the week I might only get 7 or 7-and-a-half
hours of sleep. My sleep is usually disrupted anyway during the night by
needing the toilet, a consequence of heavy drinking (of water…! Or milk, or
protein drinks, or electrolyte drinks…)
At the weekends, I usually sleep anything up to 12 hours, purely to rest and recover. My housemates have termed it “binge sleeping”. It’s probably not ideal – ideally I’d sleep 9 hours per night, every night – but given my circumstances, it’s the best I can do. One unfortunate downside to where I live is that my room faces onto quite a busy road. It’s not a main road, or a fast road, but it’s busy enough compared to what I’m used to.
So, good earplugs are essential. I spent about £40 in Boots buying every single type of earplug they had, and I spent about £40 online buying various types of industrial earplugs, and I’ve worked my way through them all. I’ve found that the best earplugs for dulling traffic noise are the yellow 3M ones, but they are only effective for single use. Having a new pair of earplugs every night would cost a fortune, so I use new ones at the weekend when I want to sleep in, and I re-use them during the week when I’m getting up horribly early anyway.
Lots of earplugs...
I’m constantly on tenterhooks with regard to injury,
particularly given that I’ve had two episodes of really debilitating back pain
earlier this year. My left knee has always been somewhat suspect as well, and I’ve
had to make sure that I manage and control these two situations as best I can.
I’ve been to various physiotherapists and osteopaths, none of whom impressed me
very much and none of whom were able to provide a proper diagnosis or treatment
plan. I’m always quite sceptical about physios, chiropractors and osteopaths,
given that they charge a lot of money and I usually don’t see too many
benefits.
One of the guys I went to Flanders with is an osteopath. In
Belgium, I asked him to have a look at my back. I wasn’t in any pain in
Belgium, and I told him that my back wasn’t giving me any bother at the time.
He had a feel, and had a prod or two, and quickly had me grunting and yelping
in pain. He very quickly said I had underlying problems, but he also seemed
confident that within a few months, he could do a good job on my back. He
stressed that for osteopathic work, there is no “quick fix”. A fix comes about
over time, with regular treatment. There were four of us in the hotel room, and
after he had got me grunting and groaning, he got to work on another guy’s
knee. Cue further grunting and groaning – I don’t know how far the noises
carried but I’m sure there were others in the hotel wondering what on earth was
going on…
I liked his approach and his confidence, and so booked in to
see him in London. On the first appointment, he did a scan of my back, and some
brief treatment. On the second treatment, the scan results were in, and I was
shown the following picture of my back:
My back
I sought an explanation of what this actually means. The
letters C, T, L and S represent sections of my spine. The values to the left
and right of these letters represent muscle tension, measured in microvolts. Electrical
impulses cause the muscles to contract, so the higher the value, the more tense
the muscles. These values are colour-coded, where green is “normal”, and red is
tense. The percentages show the imbalances on either side. As can be seen, my back is in a bit of a mess, with most of my muscles
being really tight and tense, and with huge imbalances on either side.
I’ve always known that I’m quite tense and tight, and put
this down to the sport(s) I do. Ideally I’d have a sports massage every night
after a training session, but this would cost a fortune, and even if I decided
I could afford it, I would need to find a physio to come to the house at 10pm
every night. So, this isn’t really an option, and I make do by foam rolling my
muscles a few times a week. But it’s difficult to foam roll your own back.
I was then shown an “ideal back”, which looks like this:
An ideal back...
I was told that in the three months leading up to my Ironman, I could potentially see big improvements in my back, hopefully approaching the ideal back shown above. However, it was stressed to me that I need to buy into the idea of weekly treatment at the absolute least. So, I’ve agreed to try and attend weekly sessions in an effort to improve my back. I was also told my hip movements are quite restricted, and this is something else that the osteopath will work on in the coming weeks.
I can perform to a high standard with my back as it is now,
so both my osteopath and myself are hopeful that with a good improvement in my
back and hips, my form will improve, and I will become less susceptible to
succumbing to injury. As my running mileages increase, so does my
susceptibility to injury – in the weeks before Ironman UK I picked up a niggle
in my left knee and was unable to run for about 5 or 6 weeks just before the race
– far from ideal. I don’t want something similar to happen again this year. As
my back and legs become looser, I should feel stronger and better when I’m
training and racing. So, we’ll see how it goes. I think and hope that the time sacrifice
and financial sacrifice will be worth it.
The treatment isn’t fun. I lie on a table and am pulled into
what could be construed as compromising positions if I was anywhere but on an
osteopath’s table, while my joints and back are manipulated, pulled, pushed and
stretched. Then come the words, “I’m just going to make a small adjustment,”
followed immediately by a really hefty, abrupt push or twist on my back and neck,
which then responds with horrible, unnatural clicking and “CRAAAAACKing” sounds.
Thus far my neck has become a bit freer, but my lower back
is proving difficult to loosen as it’s so tight. I’m told it will loosen in
time, and in July my back will be scanned again. This will be interesting to
see how much it will actually have improved. I’m also told by my osteopath that
I will come to enjoy my treatments. I’ve told him that I can’t see this
happening, ever… Watch this space…
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